Boston. Again. Yeah.

So I've been in Boston this week on business. Anne flew up with my on Saturday, we spent the day seeing a few sites (with many thanks to Kelly for the tips). Anne flew home Sunday morning.

Now when I made my travel plans a month or two ago, I had the brilliant idea that my coworkers and I should fly home on Wednesday night. Typically after one of our trips, we're flying back from the Pacific time zone. Hey, this is Boston! It's just over an hour flight! No problem, right? Meeting's done at 5:00, flight leaves after dinner, I'm unpacked and in my own bed at 11pm.

I checked out of my room this morning, went back to my meetings, we left around 5:30, sat in traffic FOREVER, got to the airport and checked in at the kiosks, bypassing a long line of people waiting to talk to a human being.

We went to our gate, we were there about 2.5 hours early. There had been an earlier flight leaving at 7pm, but we hadn't booked that flight since we figured it would be close timing to get there after our meeting.

My boss and I went to find some gourmet eats at the Pizza Hut express, running into some other people from our organization who were travelling elsewhere. We chatted for about an hour. Then my coworker walked up and informed me the flight had been delayed about 45 minutes.

Then it was another 30 minutes. Then it was another hour.

I talked to Increvil. Thunderstorms in DC, he told me to forget about flying anytime soon. I had other plans.

The 7pm flight was also delayed. But it was leaving an hour before ours. So I had the bright idea to call United, and get us booked onto the earlier flight. No problem.

I talked to Increvil again, who said he spotted a storm that looked like something you see on those Weather Channel "Storm Stories" shows.

Our original, pre-doomed flight was further delayed, departing sometime after midnight. Eeeeyeah, no thanks. Woo hoo, I'm on the early flight!

Then the shock. Someone said the "C" word. Cancelled... wha? No! The used-to-be-7pm-now-10:50pm-flight had been cancelled! The flight I had, only moments earlier, rebooked me, my boss, and two other coworkers on.

If we were interested in the original flight, we could go standby. Oh yeah, it was a regional express jet. Good odds there, huh?

So we were rebooked onto a 6:45 AM flight. We tried to get our bags back, but it wouldn't be practical, but the lady at the bag counter told me I was the friendliest person she had encountered all day. We took another $30 cab ride back to the hotel. We left our bags at the airport.

And get this. They put me in the SAME ROOM I was in all week! Why did I leave in the first place? We could have had a nice dinner, on the company's dime, I could have gone for a nice walk, who knows what. Instead, I sat in traffic for an hour, and stood around breathing stale airport air.

I know my travel woes aren't really all that bad. But nonetheless, here I am, back in Boston, going to sleep for five hours in a $200/night room so I can wake up, not shower, and put on the same clothes I wore for 17 hours today.

And sit next to my coworkers who are wearing the same clothes they wore for 17 hours today.

Air travel. Love it, hate it, gotta do it.

On the bright side, back at the hotel, the wireless connection I bought for $10 had another hour left on it, enough for me to post this to the Internet. And I got to see the last 22 minutes of LOST. Every thunderstorm has it's silver lining.